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Friday, July 25, 2008

Malaysian Chicken Pizza...

You know, I think I could really get used to this. Last Friday we had that unusual, but delicious, Nectarine and Prosciutto Pizza - I decided to follow that up this week with a Malaysian Chicken Pizza recipe we came across. Saturday night has always been our plain 'ol chicken and greens salad night, so maybe we'll have to start making Friday pizza night!

As usual, I used our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough recipe that has become such a staple, though, this time I made the 12 ounce variation. The directions are the same, but the ingredients have been slightly scaled down - you'll find those if you scroll down a bit on that page. Once I had gotten the dough together, I started sautéing a couple chicken breasts that I chopped into small chunks. After they had caramelized, I moved them to a plate and added quite the list of ingredients to create a sweet and quite tangy barbecue-esque sauce. Rice vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, fresh ginger, natural peanut butter and a few flakes of crushed red pepper are brought to a boil and cooked until the liquids begin to thicken. The almost-done pieces of chicken are returned and allowed to cook through - at this point, the sauce should be thick and a little syrup-y; if it looks a little too loose, allow it to bubble away a bit more.

A combination of nutty Swiss cheese and shreds of mozzarella are actually scattered first over the rolled out dough. This is to keep them from turning too brown as the pizza is cooked at a roasting 500 degrees, without pre-baking the crust. When you go to add the sauce with the pieces of chicken, just distribute out the pieces of chicken and then dribble the sauce as evenly as you can. You do not have to worry about getting the sauce smooth and completely even over the entire surface - as the pizza cooks, you'll see that those dribbles of sweet sauce will begin to bubble and fuse together. This is why you let the sauce thicken before you add it to the pizza - if it is too thin, it might bubble over the crust and onto the bottom of the oven. Not a good thing!

Right as the pizza came out with its crisp crust, we sprinkled the surface with sliced greens onions and let it rest a few minutes as that sauce on top was molten from the rich brown sugar. When I was making the sauce, I thought that the amount of vinegar seemed like a lot, but I didn't notice the finished product being harsh or vinegar-y at all. In fact, I was a little taken aback by the sweetness, but the savory soy, garlic and crushed red pepper kept it from being cloying and distracting. The peanut butter took a back seat to the rest of the flavors, but it definitely helped with the texture while the fresh ginger left a lovely lingering bite in the background.

Joe, I used the black vinegar( I loved it) called for. She didnt like the strong flavor. Its weird, cause she loves peanut butter. I'm going to make it again one day and see if maybe her tastes have changed.